The Gujarat Police has filed a case against an unknown person in the state for placing an advertisement to sell the world’s tallest statue, Statue of Unity, for Rs 30,000 crore on online marketplace OLX to help the government tackle the coronavirus spread in the country, PTI reported. The seller seemed to be taking a dig at the lack of proper protective gear for the front-line workers in hospitals across India.

The description of the listing in the website said: “‘Emergency! Selling Statue of Unity because of urgent money required for the hospitals and healthcare equipment”. The original listing was taken down by the company later.

The Statue of Unity, built at a cost of about Rs 3,000 crore, is dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 in Gujarat’s Narmada district.

“An unknown person, with a malafide intention to defame the government had put up the Statue of Unity for sale on OLX, despite not being authorised to do so,” a release by Nilesh Dubey, Assistant Commissioner, Statue of Unity, said. “It is appalling that the online marketplace OLX did not verify the post and approved it in the first place.”

It added that such an advertisement hurts the sentiments of the several crore people who idolise Patel.

“The memorial’s authorities came to know of the issue after a newspaper ran an article, and approached police,” Inspector PT Chaudhary said.

An first information report has been registered against an unknown person under Indian Penal Code Section 505 (publishes, circulates any rumours), 417 (Punishment for cheating), 469 (forgery) and under relevant sections of the Information and Technology Act.